#342 Packers Unscripted: Holding their own

the Green Bay Packers. One of the things maybe getting a little bit lost in the shuffle, is that this Packers defense two weeks in a row has actually played some pretty good football too. I guess you could say even two and a half games in a row since halftime of that loss at Washington and uh. I know there have been some coverage breakdowns here and there. Nothing

has been perfect by any means. We'd like to see them take the ball away more all of that, But in terms of what this Packers defense is doing holding the yardage total down fairly well for their opponents in recent weeks, Who do you think is the best defensive player on this Packers team? Right? There are a number of candidates that I think you can point towards, but for me, I think it has to be Kenny Clark.

And I was talking with our producer Marvin uh and you know, he was mentioning he also directs The Mike McCarthy Show and mentioned that every single week basically Mike McCarthy is mentioning the plays and how disruptive Kenny Clark has been weekend, and we got We've talked so much about Davante Adams. I think defensively, Kenny Clark has been that player for them. And what else is really impressive, Mike.

This isn't in no disrespect to Ryan Pickett, are those type of guys, but this isn't your pound, run nose tackle, run stuffer. They asked him to do so many things in this defense and he's playing a lot, Mike. I mean, I was like bringing up the stats in front of me here Football outsiders dot Com. Two defensive stats. Defensive snaps so far this season. That's the total. That is

a heavy, heavy workload for a defensive player. And the biggest thing is you just it's really difficult to take him off the field right now because he's equally as dominant against the run as he is being able to get inside pressure against the past. So I just think you're seeing a young man now at twenty three years old, is really coming into his own. The Packers drafted him with upside in mind, and and he's really, I think,

lived up those expectations. And he's also just a quiet guy that just goes about his business weekend and week out. He's not trying to get on any commercials or billboards or anything. Yeah, he's not doing any crazy celebrations out there or anything like. Yeah, I have to agree with you. I think Clark is the best defensive player right now on this team, and I'll be curious to see now

as the season goes along. I have to believe that as the Packers get beyond the bye week and you know, they go on this road stretch and everything else that we've talked about, I think Kenny Clark is going to see a lot more double teams now. Mike Daniels, of course, is the guy who has seen those double teams in past years and had to deal with those and had to make adjustments. Kenny Clark is the guy who's going to have to make adjustments because I think the way

he's playing and what's on film. Teams have got to notice it, and they're going they're gonna have to say, hey, we can't let number ninety seven disrupt what's going on and in the middle of the trenches the way he has so consistently. So this is uh, it's one of those things where, yes, Kenny Clark is playing great right now, you can't just say, Okay, well, he's just gonna play like that the rest of the season. Other teams are gonna adjust him. The Packers will have to have their CounterPunch.

But but yeah, what's what's on film right now is pretty impressive, as you said, both defending the run and in terms of pushing that pocket. And it's a it's punch CounterPunch, and I think you've seen some of that already with Mike Petton and some of the blitz packages he's been using. I actually think the Packer is one of the things they've done very well so far. And the other part of the season is being able to to blitz through the middle of the offensive front. You've

seen them threatened the double A gap stuff. I think it was actually correct me if I'm wronger, But the Jermaine Whitehead sack from two weeks ago. I think actually did come off a double a gap blitz, or at the very least he came up through the middle line and was able to get after Josh Allen. That's what can help in the in specifically in the dime passing situations. Helped take off some of the pressure. They've moved around

those defenders, those defensive lineman a lot as well. But getting back to original points, specifically against the run, that's just the thing that he's going to have to get comfortable with. He's going to have to know that this is what is going to be required to me going forward. B J. Raji had to do it, Ryan Pickett had to do it, Mike Daniels has had to do it over the years and being able to still find ways to be effective. It's one thing to break out and

get that attention. It's another thing to have to adapt to it. And that's what the great, you know, real Pro Bowl perennial type players do. Yeah, And when you talk about a quiet guy who's simply going about and doing his job, maybe with out a whole lot of flash or fan or Blake Martinez in the middle of

that defense. Mike Petton during training camp, and when they were installing all of this and everything, he kind of called that that inside linebacker who's, you know, got the communication hel McCullum, the nerve center of the defense, because he's the one who's he's gotta make sure the front and the coverage in the back end that everybody's on the same page and knows what's going on. And and so far, I can't say enough about what Blake Martinez

has done there. I know, statistically, nothing necessarily jumps off the page. You expect inside linebackers to rack up tackles all that kind of stuff, just like he did a year ago. But we're not seeing just you know, flat out blown defensive assignments necessarily. And and yes, this defense has given up some big plays. I get that, but it's not because of just complete communication breakdown. Yeah, I mean, you met. You asked me who the best defensive player

on the team is right now, it's Kenny Clark. If you ask me who the most important player on this defense is right now, it's Blake Martinez. And it's because there's just you can't replace him at this point in time. And certainly, if something would happen, they'd have to adjust, but his experience, what he offers as a football player in the communication skill, those three things are imperative right now because Mike, we haven't seen it so much the

last few weeks. Last week with not having Germaine Whitehead, they had to go a little more traditional with their nickel packages or in Burke's ended up playing upwards of twenty snaps for the first time. But the thing about it is Martinez in a lot of situations has had

to be the only inside linebacker on the field. We talk about dime linebackers all the time and playing all three downs, Well, he's had to do that sometimes in the sub base packages as we continue to call them, those hybrid type things where they're going with three uh cornerbacks instead of the extra inside linebacker, and he has to be the guy making sure that the front is tied to the back and everything is is in is

in line there. I think he's done a really good job of that, and the fact that he's still been incredibly productive. Actually coincidentally, I know this is probably just more of a I don't want to call it a fluke, but I mean the fact that he's currently tied for the lead right now on the team in sacks with three. He had to his first two sack game last week. That you're finding ways to have him make an impact.

And I think the biggest credit to Martinez at this point in time is if there's a running back or there's a player out in space down the field, Blake Martinez is gonna get him. He fits gaps well, he knows where he needs to be at all times, and if it isn't gonna be him, He's at least going to hold up the play until he can get you know,

everybody else to pursuit and finish. So I just I've been really impressed with him and how he's handled this role in the fact that he's had to play next day, Antonio Morrison, Corey tumor Jermaine Whitehead as I mentioned, or in Burke's so many different guys having to fill that void with Jake Ryan being out for the year, and uh, you know, Blake Martinez has been up for that. Champel Well, both of these guys were talking about Kenny Clark and

Blake Martinez. You mentioned it with Clark already. The snap load, the the snap count for these guys both really really high. Is this something that is sustainable as the Packers go along, are they're going to need to make some adjustments here over the course of sixteen games. I think it's gonna be tough for him to play the snaps like he

did in Detroit. Now, they did promote Tyler Lancaster, who I think I've mentioned it's probably four or five times now if you don't know anything about his story, mic wrote a phenomenal piece on him during the off season where he comes from, and actually I thought had a really good camp all things considered that what was at that time a very deep position when Mohammed Wilkerson was still in the fold, well he's now on the active roster, Mark Montrevius Adams, you know, you look for him to

potentially get more involved. The Packers have been in a tough spot because they've been playing a lot of bass. They've been playing a lot of three defensive line packages, which puts Clark, Daniels and Lowry on the field a lot. But when you're down by multiple scores, the other team is going to run the full exactly. You've got to get your personnel out there to stop the run and get the ball back. So you want to go with those guys. It's must win situations, So I get that

he's playing that much. I would think the Packers would like to taper those snaps off over the course of the year because you need to keep those guys fresh and you want to keep them involved in the inside us rush as well. But a lot of it I think is going to be determined Mike on guys like Adams, guys like land Caster, showing that they can go in in critical situations and help pick up that rotation. Yeah,

all right, I agree with you. There. With with that a little bit of sponsored business West, it is time to enter the Cousins Subs Best Seats in the House promotion. You and a guest could win a chance to kick back on the fifty yard line in style. Two pairs of lucky Packers fans will be chosen prior to each home game for this v I P experience. Enter daily now through December sixteen by completing the entry form and submitting. For complete rules and eligibility, go to Packers dot com

slash Best Seats Cousin Subs We Believe in Better. Okay. Another topic that continues to come up in our insider inbox, my weekly Chat and everywhere else that we try to answer fan questions. Is the situation with the Packers running backs. A lot of people asking continuing to ask, why isn't Aaron Jones getting the ball more? Why isn't he on the field more? It was to nothing at halftime against Detroit.

Jones was hardly on the field in the second half as the Packers are basically in their two minute offense with with either Montgomery or Jamal Williams as the past protecting running back. I'll just say this, I think Mike McCarthy on Monday essentially admitted he would like to get

Aaron Jones the football more. He blames himself for the limited opportunities thus far that Jones has had because now that he's been in there for a few games after missing the first two games, I think Mike McCarthy does want to get him the football more. That being said, I'll go back to what I said in my chat on Tuesday, which is on Packers dot com if you want to check it out. I think people are getting

way too hung up on this. I think the criticism here, while some of it may be valid and there's arguments to be made, I don't deny that, but I think the criticism has gone overboard because when you look at the production the Packers have gotten from the running back group as a whole, and what is going on with the execution of those players and what they're getting out of them, the running back position is the least of

this team's problems. So I don't understand personally, I just don't understand why the criticism of this has gotten to such a height When the penalties, the protecting the football, the turnover margin, the drop passes, some blown coverages in the secondary, those are the things that would change the outcome against Washington and against Detroit, not the usage of

Aaron Jones. Just my opinion. I just think this is this is something that has taken on a life of its own, and the Packers have far more important issues that they need to focus on right now than what's going on and running. I agree with Mike, and I think you and I touched on this a little bit earlier this week, but I want to revisit one thing here, going back to this game on Sunday, Packers and the Lions. Lions won this game. If you haven't heard, carry on

Johnson had twelve carries for seventy yards. He averaged five point eight yards of carry in that game, and I think now is still averaging like six six and a half yards of carry on the season. Like Garrett Blunt had the same amount of carries. He had twelve carries for twenty two yards and two touchdowns. I don't hear any chirping right now out of the Detroit Lions. Their media core, their fan base, their coaches. They understand that

guys have roles. The part that I've had a difficult time to ciphering, I think it also it ultimately just comes down to wins and losses. When you win, people don't question things. When you lose, people do. It's just the way that this business works. It's the way that any professional sports league or amateur college sports league works. Here. Here's the thing, Aaron Jones is dynamic. I mean, you know, I wrote probably as many articles as anybody on the

beat last year on Aaron Jones. Right. I covered every inch of his family's history. For the most part, love Aaron Jones, great football player. But I what I don't understand is, like we talked about this twenty four and nothing, they're trailing at halftime, and you start seeing these tweets in the day after, and it's it's mostly from a national perspective. I'm guessing people that were just looking at box scores and making their own analysis from there. Aaron

Jones didn't have a cary in the second half. Things like that. Since day one, Aaron Jones himself has said, we all have roles, we all do something well in this offense. Well, it just happens to be that Jamal Williams, I think everybody would agree at this point in time, is their best pass blocker. I think everybody that would agree in their two minute offense time, Montgomery is their best option there because you can use them in so many different ways. You can flank him out and he's

a receiver, he's not a decoy, he's a receiver. You can keep him in the backfield, you can motion them, see what they're gonna do, how they're going to disguise their defense, and Aaron Jones can do those things too. But for my money, with everything else that went wrong in that game against Detroit, at no point in time, I didn't write about everyone eleven hunderword notebook. I didn't even touch on the running backs, because at no point in time was I going, man, why are they not

feeding Aaron Jones the ball? I'm thinking they need a thirty yard chunk play to get the ball moving downfield. If you want to talk about the beginning of the game and how you're utilizing him, fine, but you at least have to acknowledge the point in which the Packers were in that game against the Lions and where the situation was at. It's a situation that screened for Jamal

Williams and Time Montgomery. It just did. Yeah. And this is the other thing too, the fact that it was twenty four to nothing at the start of the second half. The Packers drive down and get a touchdown. If you don't get the two point conversion there and it's twenty four to six, it's still a three score game. I mean, it was only a two score game, and barely a two score game because they got the two point conversion.

It's twenty four to eight. You still you can't you can't play the game as though, Okay, we just need to score two more touchdowns and we're gonna get this thing tied up. Because if you miss one two point conversion along the way, which the Packers did on their second touchdown. You haven't necessarily closed the gap as much as you would have liked. So, um, I think you

and I are on the same page here. And as I've said before, I'm not I'm not sitting here to to be a Mike McCarthy apologist for the criticism that he's getting here. I've given my opinion on this and

and it is my own opinion. I completely understand what the Packers are doing here with their running backs and the utilization and how the game situations have dictated this, and they're just so there are so many other issues, and it's why Mike McCarthy continues to go to the podium and talk about penalties and protecting the ball and turnover margin and all these things, because at the end of the at the end of the day, West in Detroit, twelve penalties and minus three in turnovers is why you

lost the football game. And none of that had anything to do with the utilization of the running backs. Not like any of the running backs put it on the ground. It's not like any of the running backs you know, messed up their opportunity. I mean time Montgomery, you see what he Offers as a receiver. He did it against Buffalo. He did it again in this game with the twenty three yard catch. You want to have those guys integrated

in the offense. You know. People and also are using this thing about the four straight runs that Jones had and I think it end up going for thirty seven yards or something like that. At that point the game, that was critical, I thought with that, with how the passing game was struggling, they just had back to back or it was close to it with the fumbles giving the ball back. You needed to establish another threat against

that defense. And they did it there right, But then then the problem is the four straight carries for thirty seven yards. Like I said, so Jones needs to come out for a breather. So you call play action on the next on the next first and ten, and they missed the blitzing linebacker coming right up the middle. He completely recks the play and Rogers has to throw it away and then you're in second and ten. Well, yeah, I mean, he just ran the ball four straight times.

He needs to step out for a play. Well, when he steps out for a play, the other guy, I mean, you still need to execute the next play. It wasn't executed, and it threw off the whole sequence, in the whole rhythm of what the offense was doing. Like I said, the part I think is the most interesting is the Packers in the Lions use their running backs. I said it going into this game. They have very complimentary parallel running back back fields. They use them the same way.

There is no discussion about whatsoever in Detroit right now. Well, why didn't carry On Johnson get the ball every single play? Why didn't carry On Johnson get the goal line carries? Doesn't matter right now because the Lions won. When you win, everything's hunky dorry. When you lose, people ask questions. That was ultimately the difference between how these two back fields

are utiflized and not much different. Yeah. Alright, Well, as we head into a weekend here where Packers fans have to wait until Monday to see the Green Bay Packers play, it's a pretty big weekend in Wisconsin sports, and I want to start with the college football team, which is the Wisconsin Badgers. On Saturday night, they are headed to the Big House. As they say in ann Arbor. It's a big football game for Wisconsin. The more time goes

by the worst. The loss to be why you looks as b y. You got pasted by Washington and then they got pasted by Utah State where my son attends college. So that loss to be why you continues to look worse. But the Badgers have bounced back with a road win at Iowa, very tough place to play in prime time. They got the win uh last week and then now

going into prime time at Michigan. And these two games these last couple of years Paul Chris Jim Harbaugh Wisconsin against Michigan, these have been low scoring, defensive slug fests, so to speak. Could be a really really interesting football game Saturday night. Yeah, it will be. And also I think an important test too for the pack. For excuse me, I'm so caught on the pack for the Badgers defense, because you know, they have given up some points at

different points in this season. I think they've had to do things a little bit differently this year, even though I think a lot of people have. You know, they put them right up there in discussion at the beginning of the year as being a potential playoff teams. So they they've had to win in different fashions. They have to you know, they have a quarterback now that I think they trust at this point in his career to to make plays, which historically it's been more based around

just run the ball until you can't run it anymore. Uh. And defensively, they got to pick themselves up. So it's gonna be a great game. I'm excited. I don't know how much of it I'm gonna be able to catch, but uh, certainly Jim Harbaugh in the Wolverines, it's it's gonna be probably their biggest test in this conference. Yeah, well, the quarterback is going to have to make some plays Alex Hornerbrook for the Badgers, because this is a great

running offense against a great rushing defense. And uh and really the game probably in that context will come down to which of the two quarterbacks Cornerbrooker Patterson for Michigan, will be able to make enough plays. Well. The other thing, Wes I put off talking about it for too long.

The Milwaukee Brewers are back in the National League Championship Series for the first time in seven years, and they are trying to get to the World Series for the first time since nine two when I was in fifth grade. By the way, um I wasn't Games one and two at Miller Park Friday night and Saturday Brewers against the Dodgers. It's it's just an exciting time to be a Wisconsin sports fan right now because this Brewer team, they've been fun to watch. Yeah, they have been, and it's gonna

be a cool you know test. Now you probably can give me the breakdowns and what the win loss was this year against the Dodgers. Do you know for four to three Dodgers, I knew you're gonna be able to come up with it. So I'm excited to see it the Brewers. As you said, from the very beginning. The interesting part of this thing is that from the beginning, uh, on the high stakes of those playoff games against Chicago, you know, whether you're not, you're gonna be the wild

card and you're gonna be the top. See. So hey, you won, you swept through the Colorado Rockies. Now enjoy the fruits of your labor. Put these uh this home field mantage to to work. And it's just I remember that two thousand and eleven team, Mike, and I remember saying to myself, I'm like, this is the best Brewers team, and they had flaws but I remember saying that this is the best Brews team of my lifetime, my lifetime.

Uh you know, seven short years later they did it unconventionally with how they handled their bullpen and they're they're starting rotation. But this, this team is this team is making it look a lot easier than the last two playoff teams did. Yeah, well, this this is gonna be This is gonna be quite the fight with the Dodgers. Because you look at the Dodgers. They went to the NLS. This is their third straight time in the NLCS. Two years ago they lost to the Cubs in the NLCS.

Last year they get through it. They end up losing in the World Series to the Astros. A great World Series, but the Dodgers come up short. This is a team that I mean, they went out and got Manny Machado at the trade deadline. There. The Dodgers are like, this is our year. And as much as Brewers fans are saying this is our year, this is the Dodgers team that's had its heartbroken the last couple of years. They feel like they're battle tested and they're going to give

the Brewers absolutely everything they can handle. And the other side of it too. I know the building the Brewers are still building for the future, but we've seen it so many times, Mike. I think of the Texas Rangers teams that's like, Okay, we'll be back there. You never know, You never know. You have to make sure that you capitalize it when you're in the moment. As we talked about, the Brewis are now back to this stage for the first time in seven years in two thousand and eleven.

Nobody was necessarily worried about waiting seven years to get back to the playoffs again. But we gotta go with that. We'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. On Twitter, you can follow him at west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.